The Continuing Adventures of Starman

15 years ago today...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:10:58 GMT

I was hot and confused.

Yes guys, it's time to remember the Eagles' Ballroom in Milwaukee. What a weird night. It started out with a fight between this girl who had a huge crush on Mike and a girl who had one on Page fighting over who would get one backstage pass. Then we had the venue itself. It was in the second story of a brick building in a room with neither windows that could be opened (well other than the ones like 12 feet up in the ceiling) nor functional AC on a 95 degree day.

I have never been this hot at a show. Not at Oswego. Not at Bonnaroo. Never. I literally spent the entire first set walking into the bathroom, pouring water over my head in the sink, walking out, listening to 5 minutes, and repeating. I tried going up front to take advantage of the fans that the band had but they were canceled out by the lights. It was just miserable.

The second set changed things though. From the beginning the band started yelling out something about OJ. Sure now I know that they watched the slow motion chase backstage during the setbreak, but at the time I was completely confused. Due to being on tour and only being able to get the news when I was changing tapes, I spent days thinking that it was OJ that was murdered.

This show was definitely defined by the second set. Between the OJ stuff, and the second version of "Simple" - the one that started its journey to being in rotation as it was played a few times during the night - to the Harpua where Trey tried to convince us that being hot and sweaty was just an illusion, this show did indeed bring the heat.

Frustrating? Yes. Annoying? Sure. Worth every minute! Of course.

Airport wackiness

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:55:34 GMT

Two eavesdropping stories from my trip home:

(1) We're sitting in CLT hanging out and some people were pointing at the gate across the aisle. "That's Mike Huckabee." "Where?" We all turned around. I never actually saw him, but some other people did. Weird.

(2) While changing planes in Houston, some people were calling people and trying to schedule things and talking about all night drives. It turns out that they missed their flight somehow and we're trying to find a new way of getting to Portland... or at this point, SF or Seattle, or anywhere near home. They reached the point where they were talking about trying to find flights out of Phoenix or Vegas and fly the last little bit. At that point, why not just drive the last stretch and save the money? I hope it works for them, but it sounds like it would be the ultimate example of bad time, good story.

The return of FUN Trey

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:59:05 GMT

Even from the crowd, we form a relationship with the band members. We listen to the shows and try to discern what they're doing and how they're interacting. Usually that's not very successful because we bring our own biases into it (e.g. assuming everyone is using the same drugs that you are), but last night (and really the last few nights judging from the tapes) are different in one important way. The Trey from the early 90s is back.

I'm not talking guitar skills now, mind you, but the goof. The guy who was a bit of a geek but who had a blast anyway and who would make bad jokes between songs. It's been so long since he's been around that I had kind of forgotten he was ever there. The dynamics from the stage changed and we all just wrote it up as them maturing or wanting to try different things or just everyone getting old. Instead, it's starting to look like that was the on stage manifestation of how bad things had become with him. The music got dark - but it was still GOOD so no one cared - and the band got (well I hesitate to say more serious) less silly and we all rolled with that because, well the music.

The last few nights have been different. Trey's obviously been having fun on stage, more fun than I've seen him having at Phish in years. He's telling stories and having amusing banter and just being relaxed, and in doing so his old personality is starting to shine through again. Without even noticing it, I had really missed that. Yes, it's dangerous to project too much from the crowd and to try to figure out a lot about a personality that you've talked to twice since 1994, but it just feels like the darkness has lifted and in doing so, we can see just how bad things were for him and how much better they are now. Trey the rock star is gone, replaced by Trey the goofy guy who - oh by the way - is going to blow your mind with his guitar skills. Even more than the amazing shows being played right now, this is so great to see. I hope this can last.

And the light is growing brighter now...

A quick note about a short song

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:34:51 GMT

The day was December 29, 1990. I was at the Campus Club in Providence, RI to see Phish. I only saw two shows on this New Years Run, missing 12/28, but this clearly was the better of the two. I walked out of the show thinking two things. "Jesus Just Left Chicago" is a very cool cover and I really wanted to see "Destiny Unbound" again.

It actually was my second version of "Destiny" that I had seen but the first made no impression. Literally. I found my setlist a few year later and there was nothing written down at all during that song. Still though, the impression from Providence was so strong that I was incredibly excited over the song.

I didn't see it in 1991. I didn't see it in 1992. The song dropped out of rotation. Time passed.

The day was February 28, 2003. I was getting ready to do an incredibly stupid thing to see Phish, flying to and from Raleigh in a 24 hour period to see just one Phish show. While it turned out to be an incredibly important concert for me to attend for personal reasons, at first it was overshadowed by one thing. As I was driving to the airport, I stopped to check the setlist from Nassau. "Destiny Unbound" was randomly played. Come on Phish! I'm doing a stupid thing to see you and you bust that out the show before?

And now let's talk about one more day. That day would be last night, a time when I did an even stupider thing, flying in and out of Boston in 24 hours. I figured just seeing Fenway would be enough, but then it happened. Nearly 19 years after wanting to see it again, it finally happened. There I was in shallow right center, seeing "Destiny Unbound." 6000 miles worth of travel faded away in a minute. No question I would do it again in a second.

So thanks Phish. An already legendary day in my world became even more so. And hey, you know, I wouldn't mind seeing the song again one day. Should I pencil in 2028 now?

Pesky Pole

Dunkin' Donuts!

Monsta!

Rainbow!

It's amazing what sticks with you

Thu, 28 May 2009 16:58:29 GMT

So I was trying to figure out how to get from Fenway to the Logan Airport post show and halfway through the thread on Phantasy Phish about the MBTA, I suddenly felt compelled to type, "Will I ever return, no I'll never return, and my fate is stillunlearned. I'll be riding forever 'neath the streets of Boston..."

My father was big time into folk music when I was growing up and as a result I listened to this Kingston Trio tape or 8 track or whatever it was way too much in the 70s. I haven't thought of the song in decades, but it's still there, waiting to come out at a moment's notice.

It turns out the song that I used to sing as , "Raspberries, strawberries, fruit rolls yum yum yum," - yes, I was making up stupid lyrics to songs even when I was 7 or 8 - also is a Kingston Trio song, as is "Tom Dooley." It's kind of scary how well I remember the music on a tape that I only really heard on the way to Memorial Stadium to see the Orioles...

Fun with Fenway

Wed, 27 May 2009 04:58:15 GMT

I just got my jersey! I'm so stoked.

It had to be a visiting jersey since Fenway is a road show.

I'm definitely getting stoked.

New Phish on iTunes

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:47:11 GMT

Time Turns Elastic, a 13+ minute "single."

Will I hold out and stick to my no Phish 2 weeks before a show rule or will I break down?

W000000000000-H00000000000000000000000!!!!!!

Fri, 22 May 2009 13:52:05 GMT

CELEBRATE!!!!

I graduated from Bard nearly 18 years ago. After that I had the hell of defaulting on my loans due to them changing their paperwork and having my tax refunds garnished and then the slow move back to respectability. Now I see this!

Your Direct Loans

Account Number	Status	Repayment Plan	Principal Balance	Fixed Payment	Current Due	Past Due	Late Charges	Total Due	Due Date
[account Number] Loan Details	Paid in Full	Standard	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Totals	N/A	N/A	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	N/A

It took until about 11:59 PM last night to post, but my student loan is gone baby gone!

15 years ago today...

Tue, 19 May 2009 14:42:10 GMT

...was my very first day in the northwest. Another escape from Las Cruces summer led me to follow Phish up and down the West Coast in May. While I have always had a weird affinity for Seattle - even when I was at Bard, I wore a M's cap for no apparent reason and UW was my first call for grad school - it took me until 1994 to see the coast north of SF. I was young...ish, I had a Geo Metro, and Phish were playing a Eugene/Olympia/Seattle/Vancouver/Portland run. It was time to explore. Here's what I remember from the run:

(1) Stopping at a rest stop in southern OR just north of the CA state line. I parked, ate a can of cold ravioli, and watched the cottonwood endlessly shed. While I didn't know how old it would get to have skies like this for months on end, I really enjoyed the fresh, chill air and romanticized the grey.

(2) Eugene completely failed to make an impression on me. I remembered the wicker basket ceiling of the Hult and rewriting "Sample" to be a commercial for Snapple., but the city itself, I couldn't tell you anything about how I felt about it.

(3) Crossing over the WA state line and seeing the first Washington State highway route, I laughed quite a bit at seeing what we used for our logos. It's definitely one of the most unique road sign designs in the country. Someone was feeling pretty silly.

(4) I stopped at the K-Mart near Chehalis to get some batteries for my crappy deck. While there, I saw this MTV kiosk that showed videos. "Down With Disease" was one of the options. This was the first time I saw the video. Every time I drive down to southern WA, I point that out.

(5) I really really liked Evergreen from what I could see walking around the campus before the show. It did feel a lot like Bard and was much more like me than, say, NMSU. The crowd didn't seem to like the show much though. People were just kind of milling about. Phish tried playing an "Ob La Di Ob La Da" jam in YEM to see if people would react to that, but nothing. Oh well, they'd make up for that 6 months later at a show I would not attend.

(6) Seattle was on the kind of day that inspires people to move here. It was sunny and 70. I was staying with someone I knew from rec.music.phish in the U District and it was the weekend of the street fair. It seemed like every corner had a band forming. I had missed that kind of energy in Cruces and it's not surprising the 94-95 school year would just be spent planning my move.

I can't believe I saw Phish at the Moore Theatre. It was another pretty forgettable show except for the end of the second set. The band announced that they always play for us, so it was our turn to play. So we clapped to make a drum beat and made random noises on top of that to be the rest of the music. After it ended Jon got all excited and said, "You guys never play that one any more!" A little tired of people requesting bustouts there?

(7) Apparently, even if they don't like the fact that I had NM plates but was crossing into Canada with little luggage, Canadian officials will let you in pretty easily if you explain that you're a grad student who teaches mathematics. It fits their image of the kind of person who should be allowed into the country. Coming back across, I got searched and had a weird exchange with the official inside the customs building. She looked at my driver's license and said, "David Steinberg? Are you Jewish?"

I wasn't sure why customs was asking me questions like that but I let it slide.

(8) Even before I knew that I didn't like Portland, Seattle and Portland treated me the way that they always do. Seattle gave me sun and a cool street fair. Portland gave me very grey skies and nothing at all to do around the venue; I didn't know about Powell's yet. Again, I should prefer Portland over Seattle in so many ways, but it just keeps rejecting me.

(9) Coming back down through California, the long view of Shasta you get on I-5 just stunned me. Rainier, St. Helens, and Hood were all hiding on my trip up north so this was my first time seeing one of the mega mountains climbing out of a valley. While I still love the local peaks, Shasta was my first one and always will have a very special spot in my heart as a result.

God I hate the initiative process

Tue, 12 May 2009 18:39:37 GMT

You gotta love a system that lets people vote to have low taxes, tons of service, and no debt, without explaining how it works. As if that kind of crap isn't enough, I was looking at what might be on the ballot in WA in 2010 and I found this

The summary?

"Initiative Measure No. 1047 concerns a supreme ruler of the universe. This measure would prohibit state use of public money or lands for anything that denies or attempts to refute the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe, including textbooks, instruction or research."

Textbooks. How much do you want to bet that this is an attempt to prevent evolution being taught in schools? Fortunately, it'll probably bomb, but sheesh.

Other fun measures in 2010:

Two different Eyman measures to lower the car tabs to $30... again (1042 and 1049... I don't get why there are two). I "love" how Eastern WA can decide that King/Pierce/Snohomish county can't have light rail even though we voted for it locally and it won't affect their taxes. There's also I-1041 that says you would have to learn CPR to get a driver's permit, 1044 which would destroy the business tax structure of the state, and 1043 that would require us to follow any rule the feds come up with for illegals. I suppose I don't have a real problem with the repeal of the seat belt law, but I still would vote against it. While it does some good on occasion, direct democracy has some issues.

Heh

Wed, 06 May 2009 04:36:47 GMT

The net result of our photographer canceling was moving from Plan B to Plan A that we thought was not going to work. Not as cheap, but I'm much happier.

So ummmm...

Mon, 04 May 2009 20:24:36 GMT

...anyone happen to know a decent wedding photographer in the Seattle area that wouldn't be very expensive for our casual-ish wedding... Our friend who was going to shoot it just told us that, oops, she's going to be somewhere else that day...

The joys of homeownership!

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:28:26 GMT

So around 1 or so, Mel calls me and tells me that the washing machine is causing a weird back up in the downstairs shower. I should go home and probably call a plumber.

3 hours later, I now have a shiny new $7500 charge on my credit card. A tree's roots had grown through the pipe. Yay!

...sigh... So much for having my card paid off.

Holy cow!

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:16:54 GMT

Specter might switch parties!. See guys, this is what happens when you argue for purism.

Take me out...

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:42:18 GMT

First, am I the only person who thinks that everyone is completely overreacting to the swine flu? Yes these things can spread quickly and I understand constrained exponential growth, but we don't even know exactly how deadly this strain is and already Europe is warning about travel to the US, a country that has exactly 0 fatal cases of the flu so far.

Anyway, something more important, my Fenway Phish outfit. Boston is obviously a "road" show so I'm been playing with the M's jersey generator to make some options.

Ok, this first one can't really be purchased but you can hack the generator tool to make it display:

However, the biggest downfall to that is that it makes me look like Zzyzx, P.I., the new series on Fox. He solves crimes during the day and sees shows at night.

So, the next option is this

1989 is the year that I first saw Phish.

Now, I'm going for the cheaper replica jerseys which means that I don't get the patches the team has. That means that I might get this Phish patch and sew it on (ok, have Mel sew it on):

So what do people think? Any ideas for a better number? I think that could be cool...

This one is for suspect-terrain

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:08:49 GMT

Continental drift? Bah! I mock at your theories!

YES VERMONT!!!

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:14:45 GMT

Way to go there, overriding the veto! 4 down, 46 to go. Come on Washington.

And in other news, I finally have an excuse to go to Fenway Park...

It was twenty years ago today...

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:19:26 GMT

"Test me, test me.
Why don't you arrest me?
Throw me in the jailhouse
Until the sun goes down."

The Grateful Dead decided to do something different on their 1989 Spring Tour. Instead of playing the northeast, they figured they could skirt around the area and play Greensboro and Pittsburgh. No one would mind right?

The net result of that, as anyone could have predicted, was insanity. Since these shows occurred during many people's spring breaks, all four nights were completely overrun.

I had the serious ticket luck on this run. We arrive in Greensboro, only to be not allowed in the parking lot due to not having tickets. We parked a few blocks away and walked around the venue, discovering a path into a lot. Halfway through our sneak in attempt through a hole in the fence, a guard spotted us. "Excuse me," he said, "the lot is that way." For some reason he thought we were sneaking out and he escorted us to where we wanted to go.

I managed to quickly find a 3/30 so I left via the main entrance to get my car in the lot. As I got to the street, I heard a rumor about how they were selling tickets to 3/31 at a backup ticket booth. I rushed to get in line and not only was able to buy one, but someone gave me extra cash so I could buy them one and immediately trade it for a 4/3 ticket. 3 of the 4 procured almost immediately! I eventually got the 4/2 ticket, but that was much later.

The Greensboro shows were a lot of fun - I especially remember people jumping up and down by the hall speakers during "I Know You Rider," trying to see if they could touch the ceiling while the cops just looked on bemused. The scene was a little weird as North Carolina was not taking any crap. There was an onsite bail bondsman who was getting a lot of business. It was my first experience of the occasionally strained interactions between the cops and the Deadheads, but it was just a warm up.

Despite the busts, Greensboro still felt sane compared to Pittsburgh. The Civic Arena was right in the middle of downtown causing the camping scene to spill over into some private lots. While I remember seeing my all time favorite license plate ("MYTZWL"... think about it for a while and you'll get it) and accidentally locking my keys in my car after waking up, the main focus this weekend was on the cops and the fans.

Normally, I would have heard the stories second hand, but I had a weird encounter on the 2nd. I started talking to this girl who needed a ticket. She had traveled from NYC, quitting her job and taking a Greyhound from the city. She only had $20 to her name to find a ticket and they were nowhere to be seen. This was a pilgrimage for her; she was going because she had two close friends who were diehard Deadheads with 3rd row seats to the concert who had died in a car accident a week prior. This was a year to the day where Oren died so I hung out with her and helped her to get in. She tried to get excited about the quest, but kept breaking down when she remembered her friends. Maybe she was just a great actress, but I don't know of many Deadheads who could pull that off for an hour. As a result when it was time to go into the show, I handed her my ticket. She was stunned and forced the $20 on me despite me trying to turn it down. This was my payment to the Ticket Karma gods, and it served me well for a long time...

So I was outside the show with no way of getting in. Fortunately there was a spot outside where you could hear just fine. Unfortunately, there were some massive gate crashing attempts. I didn't want to sneak in. Hearing the show from the outside was just fine. However, every 5 minutes someone would pop the doors. Then the line of cops would sic dogs on us, even though we were moving AWAY from the open doors. It got ugly and is one of the reasons I will never support gate crashing.

Oh yeah, 4/3, the show I was supposed to be writing about. I think this night is the obvious best of the four. It has most of what you would want from a late period Grateful Dead show. There were a few minor bust outs ("Jack-a-Roe," "El Paso), a very solid pre-DrumZ segment with a great "Crazy Fingers->Uncle John's Band," and then something that happened very rarely. After the "Johnny B. Goode" encore, Jerry decided that the show wasn't quite over yet and started "Black Muddy River." I was pretty burnt out on this song at the time but who can complain about a second encore? Besides, I would only see the song once more.

No one really talks about this run outside of the police situation, but this was a great show. I can't give a link because it's been released as Download Series Volume 9, but try to find this show. It's worth a listen. It even made my first time driving I-80 across PA experience worthwhile :)

My count for this week among my friends...

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:28:03 GMT

1 death
1 coma
1 newborn requiring surgery
4 layoffs.

I swear, one more piece of bad news and I'm going to... well... do something quite dramatic let me tell you...

Gorge!

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:51:36 GMT

So in an attempt to manifest summer tour tickets, I've been listening to the first Gorge show ever. Coming into work this morning, I was up to the encore. After a lot of cheering, "Harry Hood" came up.

This was a spectacular reading of the song, but what makes it so noteworthy - other than Trey's silly name check of Mt. Hood at the end - is what happened in the middle of the song. Trey asked Chris to turn out all of the lights.

Glowstick wars wouldn't be invented for another month so this was just an amazing moment. As the Hood played, we all had a view of the desert night sky. Even with the lights up there you can usually see the big dipper and a few other constellations but with them turned out, it's just amazing. I remember lying down under the stars and looking up as they took their time building. Eventually they finally let the jam get intense and CK started using some lights, but the memory of that moment got me very excited!

...and not just because there's suddenly a hold on my account for the price of the Gorge tickets! I still would need to find Shorelines, but the important shows might just be taken care of!

WBC!

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:11:44 GMT

I fell asleep around 7:30 or so watching, but right before I went to bed I checked the score and discovered that Japan had a one run lead over Korea in the bottom of the 9th. I figured I'd turn it on. What a dramatic half inning that was. Korea tied it up with 2 outs in the 9th and we're going to extras!

Two changes I'd make would be to get rid of the pointless 6th game in the first two rounds. After the teams play 5 games, one is 2-0, one is 2-1, one is 1-2, and one is 0-2. Why do we need an extra game to decide who is the top seed? Let the lossless team be that. Then I'd split up the top and bottom teams in the second round. The top team in Pools A and B in the first round go to Miami and the bottom team goes to San Diego. Reverse that for pools C and D. Why make that change? This way no team could play each other more than twice. I know no one minds this in either Japan or Korea, but this is the 5th time they're playing each other in the tourny which could get old.

...AND ICHIRO COMES THROUGH IN THE 10th!!!

Geez, it is possible for Ichiro to be even more popular in Japan than he is now? I don't think so but if it is, he will be.

My favorite moment of Hampton!

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 04:48:44 GMT

Ah the Maze dance :)

In honor of the first day of spring...

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:56:03 GMT

....I give you a case of spring fever!

Why we need newspapers.

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:54:39 GMT

So some guy on PT made up a rumor that the summer tour video meant that Phish was going to play a festival in southern Texas. He claimed to have a quasi-confirmation from Georgetown, TX.

...and then later admitted to making the whole thing up:

well Im the one who started the rumor about calling the Public Info Office and getting the info about a "large touring band" coming to town... i was just getting everyone on edge... now its published as fact...i guess not so funny anymore. I live in TX and would love this to happen, but it sounds like Fagots already been called and its not going down

Between the time of the invention and the confession a blog that I never had heard of before yesterday, The Butter Room ran with it. They seem like well meaning people, but I don't know what kind of research department they have because, again, this is the first time that I've ever heard of them.

Now normally that might not be a big deal, but then a more mainstream blog Jamtopia went with the Butter Room report to put this out. No one is actually trying to verify this information themselves, everyone is just going based on the same rumor that is not admitted to have been made up, but I bet this hits something real in a day or two.

Blogs are great, but we need people who as their full time job tracking stories down and finding out if they're true, people who actually know who to call to find out these things and a chance of having the call returned, or we'll just get buried in rumors. Yeah it's funny when it happens about this (or as a commentator said Doctor Who), but it does make you wonder. And re the comment, crappy papers are just a step above blogs in that sense; I meant why we need real newspapers :)

Then again, who knows, maybe the rumor will inspire Phish to really do this.

Not the dates I was expecting but...

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:13:26 GMT

http://www.phish.com/latesummer2009/

Gorge for my honeymoon!!!!